CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Although Marcus
Holman, Jimmy Bitter and Joey Sankey have drawn the most attention
from defenses over the course of the season, Holman has said
throughout that the North Carolina offense is predicated upon
having six scoring threats on the field at any given time.

Against Lehigh in its first-round NCAA Division I men's game
Saturday, fifth-seeded UNC did that premise five better. A total of
11 Tar Heels scored goals in North Carolina's 16-7 win against
Lehigh, and 13 players scored at least one point.

Chad Tutton and Jimmy Bitter both recorded hat tricks, but
defensive players like Patrick Kelly and Ryan Creighton got in on
the action along with R.G. Keenan, who scored on a one-man
fast-break from the faceoff X.

Lehigh entered the game boasting the nation's second-best
goals-against average of 7.44 per game, but once the Tar Heels got
rolling, the Mountain Hawk defense looked average at best.

"To beat our defense, that's what you have to do," Lehigh coach
Kevin Cassese said. "You have to share the ball and find open men,
and they did that really well. The other thing they did was
capitalize... in unsettled situations. That's where they thrive.
When you see a couple of defensive players come up with assists and
goals, that explains some of it, but they were also sharing the
ball really well."

In the first quarter, though, Lehigh seemed to be having some
success imposing its will on the Tar Heels. Compensating for its
athletic disadvantage when matched up against the speedy UNC
players, the Mountain Hawks did what they could to turn the game
into a slow grind, playing physical defense and methodical
offense.

"They have athletes in number," Cassese said. "We just have
athletes with heart and grinders. So for us, the methodical
approach is what we've been doing all year. It certainly worked for
us in the first quarter, and I thought we were in a decent spot
going into halftime."

The Mountain Hawks held UNC to one goal on 13 shots in the first
quarter, and Lehigh enjoyed a 2-1 advantage after 15 minutes of
play on goals from David DiMaria and Patrick Corbett. But that was
the last lead Lehigh held.

Keenan's performance on faceoffs and UNC's tenacious ground ball
play slowly caught up to Lehigh once North Carolina began making
shots. The Tar Heels rattled off six goals in the second quarter,
including a string of five unanswered, to take a 7-4 lead into
halftime.

"We continued to keep to the game plan, and we took advantage of
some transition opportunities," UNC coach Joe Breschi said. "I know
a big focus for them was to try to play a six-on-six game, but I
thought we did a nice job of taking advantage of those
opportunities in the second quarter."

Lehigh scored a quick extra-man goal to open the second half,
but UNC got back on track with goals from Steve Pontrello, Tutton
and Bitter in the third quarter.

And in the final period, North Carolina made the nation's
second-best defense look ragged and worn out. UNC piled on another
six goals in the fourth quarter to cushion its lead.

"They had the ball all day," Cassese said. "We wore down in the
fourth quarter because we were playing so much defense."

As UNC's lead grew, so did Lehigh's frustration, though Holman
said his team knew going into the game that the Tar Heels would
have to deal with some amount of physicality either way from the
Mountain Hawks.

"They're not afraid to let you know that," said Holman, the Tar
Heels' leader and one of five Tewaaraton Award men's finalists
named this week. "We did a good job of keeping our heads whenever
there was a cheap hit or whatnot. We knew they were going to foul,
but you've just got to keep your head about you and focus on the
long-term benefits of getting extra-man opportunities."

The Tar Heels were also able to keep the Lehigh defense
unsettled by prolonging ground ball battles and guaranteeing that
the UNC attackers wouldn't encounter an organized defense in
transition when the ball finally squirted free. And more often than
not, the attacker leading the charge was a new face for Lehigh
goalkeeper Matt Poillon.

Though Poillon made a career-high 17 saves for the Mountain
Hawks, he had to deal with 53 shots from such a variety of players
that he had difficulty getting a bead on any of them.

"When you have that many different shooters and that many
different techniques to look at, it's hard to get used to any one
kind of shot," the sophomore Poillon said.

In a way, his experience was a microcosm of his entire team's
struggle. Whether it was Keenan's 17-for-26 mark at centerfield,
each of UNC's 11 goal-scorers or the Tar Heel defense's ability to
deny open shots, the Mountain Hawks found it impossible to
compensate for all of UNC's advantages at once.

"You can't beat us with one or two men," Poillon said. "You've
got to get the whole team involved."